Healthy Sour Cream Substitute

I am loving this healthified copycat sour cream recipe. It is ridiculously easy and tastes very similar to real sour cream. Although I often use Greek yogurt in place of sour cream, it has a different flavor, more "bite" to it, and isn't always a good substitute. This recipe is a great alternative, and very similar in nutritional value to Greek yogurt.

I got this idea from TV celebrity chef, Rocco DiSpirito. After seeing him demonstrate how to make a quick 2-ingredient healthy sour cream substitute using cottage cheese and lemon juice, I had to give it a try. That truly is all there is to it. Blend those two ingredients until they're smooth, and it's done. Wow.

Use lemon juice or white vinegar. I tried it Rocco's way, and liked it very much. However, it does have a faint hint of lemon flavor. That's not necessarily a bad thing; in fact the lemon flavor can be a nice accent for many foods. But, I wanted to try to make the flavor of this copycat recipe taste more like real sour cream. So, in place of lemon juice I tried combining some white vinegar with cottage cheese. It worked! I couldn't believe how well that combination mimicked the flavor of sour cream. So, you can make this recipe with either lemon juice or white vinegar, depending on your personal preference. I personally prefer the vinegar version for a more authentic taste.

It's better for you. Nutritionally, this sour cream copycat recipe is considerably healthier than regular sour cream. It's very similar to Greek yogurt nutritionally. You can see how they measure up in the table below. The only issue with using cottage cheese is that it is very high in sodium; so I recommend using a low sodium cottage cheese to eliminate that problem. Cottage cheese is low in sugar and high in phosphorus, selenium, vitamin B12, calcium, and protein. (source)

Here's how to make these easy
Healthy Sour Cream Substitute

Step 1. Assemble these ingredients:

• cottage cheese -- you can use any variety; choose whichever you like. I prefer to use a low-sodium version.
• lemon juice or white vinegar--you only need 1 tablespoon per cup of cottage cheese

Step 2. Put the cottage cheese, lemon juice or vinegar, in a blender or food processor and blend until it's smooth like sour cream. Depending on your blending appliance, you may need to stop blending periodically, scrape down the sides, stir, and blend some more until it's smooth.

That's all there is to it! Store it in the refrigerator. I've been blending this and keeping it on hand to use whenever I need sour cream.

Any blending appliance should work. I tried three different kinds that I have. (King-Man will see this as evidence that I have too many kitchen gadgets. Hmmmm...he may have a point.) They all blended the cottage cheese eventually, but I did have a favorite.

• Immersion Blender -- This one definitely worked the best; it was fast, easy, and produced a smooth consistency without any stopping, stirring, and starting. I love my KitchenAid Immersion Blender; it was rated #1 by Cooks Illustrated.  view on Amazon
• Mini Food Processor -- This worked fine, but I had to stop several times and scrape down the sides of the bowl.  view on Amazon
• Blender -- I used my smoothie blender, since it works well for small quantities like this. This took the longest to produce a smooth consistency. I had to stop, stir, and scrape numerous times. But, in the end, it worked.  view on Amazon

The result is a healthy sour cream that is likely to fool people who eat it. If you don't tell them it's a hack, I'll bet they won't know. Good stuff.

How to use it. Spoon a dollop on chili, nachos, enchiladas, burritos, or tacos. Use it in recipes that call for sour cream. It's an especially good substitute in sour cream based dips. Guilt free dip--yay!

I like it best on baked potatoes. Tastes like the real thing. Seriously.

Make it a Yummy day!
Monica 

Healthy Sour Cream Substitute

By Monica              Servings: makes 1 cup

Ingredients

• 1 cup cottage cheese (whole, low, or no fat; use low-sodium, if desired)
• 1 tablespoon lemon juice or white vinegar*

Directions

*Use white vinegar for a taste that is most similar to sour cream. Use lemon juice if you prefer a faint hint of lemon taste.

Combine ingredients in blender, food processor or with immersion blender. Blend on high until smooth, stopping and scraping down sides as needed.

Serve a dollop on baked potatoes, chili, nachos, enchiladas, or stir into recipes in place of sour cream. Great for sour cream based dips.

Store in refrigerator. Recipe may be doubled.